Digital Music Up; Musical Integrity Down

According to Nielsen SoundScan figures for the week ending October 1, marking the end of the third quarter, “digital album sales climbed 115%, with 22.6 million sold through September. Downloaded tracks soared 72%, to 418.6 million.”

Actual album sales this year, however, “totaled 370.5 million units, down 8.3% from the 404.2 million racked up in the year-ago period.

Adding digital albums and track equivalent albums (with 10 digital tracks equaling one album) to physical sales, a total of 434.9 million albums have been sold in 2006. The comparable year-ago figure was a tad higher at 439.2 million.”

But the really incredible news here is that Walt Disney Records' High School Musical soundtrack remains the top-selling release so far this year, with 3.1 million copies sold to date. Second is country act Rascal Flatts' Me and My Gang, issued by Disney's Lyric Street imprint; which sold 2.5 million copies.

WTF?!?!

So, 2006 will go down in history as the wimpiest year in music ever??? Jesus. Can my Slayer fan and Necro heads start buying two or three copies of their favorite album so we can de-pussify the USA please? Where’s my D-Block boys? Where’s my Slipknot clowns?